Woman accused of killing sister first wrote her own obituary

WHIDBEY ISLAND, Wash. -- The photo 71-year-old Linda Thomas chose for her own obituary is very peaceful. She is surrounded by flowers and holding her dog.

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"She was very pleasant. She wasn't short, curt, anything like that," said Renee Midgett with the South Whidbey Record.

But Thomas is still alive. Her most recent photo is a mug shot taken in a California jail.

"I just thought, 'Good for her, she's getting her affairs in order.' Now knowing what affairs she was getting in order, that's kind of surprising," said Midgett.

Authorities say a family friend drove Linda Thomas to Rodeo, California to visit her sister, Zonna Thomas. Court papers say they argued and Linda shot Zonna several times. They go on to say Zonna's husband wrestled the gun away from Linda and called police.

Officers say there was bad blood between the sisters over family money and an inheritance.

Detectives in California immediately called the Island County Sheriff's Office to secure a car and anything in the home of Thomas's daughter.

"We just started jumping from there to help them with the search warrants. We were serving search warrants by that afternoon," says Island County Detective Ed Wallace.

Back in Clinton, Thomas may have left clues of what was going to happen. She just sold her house, and officers say she had a duffle bag filled with zip ties and duct tape. And then there was that obituary, which read in part:

"Linda wanted no services or flowers. Just donate to the local food bank or WAIF, Coupeville's animal shelter."

Midgett says Thomas walked in to the South Whidbey Record office and paid to place her own obituary in the paper back in September. She said she wanted it to run after her death, but left the date on the form blank.

With Thomas now in custody, the community hopes to eventually get the full picture of what went so wrong.

"If somebody calls me next time and says 'I want to schedule my obit,' yeah, not quite sure what I'm gonna think," said Midgett.

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Thomas is being held without bail. Her next court appearance is November 10th.

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